The reason for the poor response from citizens is not far to seek. The experience of citizens like Surekha Vasant Chowgule exemplifies what’s wrong with the Lokshahi Din.

For six months now, Chowgule, a resident of Chandannagar, has been filing complaints about illegal construction going on the adjacent plot of her residence by closing down a well. When Chowgule finally got the official response, she was stumped by the “contradictions” in the reply.

“I registered the complaint 13 times with the PMC, but the officers did not pay any. PMC responded to the next application filed at Lokshahi Din, but the reply to the complaint filed was contradictory to that received by her under Right to Information (RTI) Act,” she said.

In the reply to complaint on Lokshahi Din, the administration said PMC is relocating a temple on plot number 44 in survey 49/2 at Chandannagar, which has been removed from Ahmednagar Road for road widening project executed under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

“However, the city engineer’s department under RTI said there was no permission given to any kind of construction on the same plot,” Chowgule said.

“PMC has been conducting the Lokshahi Din only as a formality and few citizens get their grievances addressed. The dissatisfaction of citizens is the main reason for the dip in citizens participation in the Lokshahi Din,” RTI activist Vihar Durve said.

According to the information received under RTI by Durve on Lokshahi Din from PMC, the response to the Lokshahi Din has shown a downward trend, especially, in last three years.

“The response to Lokshahi Din in PMC was at peak in the first few years of its launch in 2000, but now it is decreasing every year,” he said, adding, the first year PMC received 416 complaints in Lokshahi Din and which showed a steady increase initially and reached its peak in 2005 with a total of 956 applications. But after that it was downhill.

“PMC has no record of the grievances addressed and have not received any satisfactory response by any complainant so far which indicates the citizens are not satisfied,” he added.

PMC public relations officer (PRO) Sanjay More said that the PMC makes all possible efforts to address the grievances of citizens made in Lokshahi Din, conducted on first Monday of every month.

“Most of the grievances are related to city engineer’s department and the PMC has started a separate table for it to address the complaints at a faster pace,” he said. “The citizens complaint is not registered if it is already in court and many complaints are related to offices other than PMC.”